Preservation, Rehabilitation, and Management of Heritage Wetlands in Mexico - Restorative Redevelopment of Devastated Ecocultural Landscapes - page 183

FIGURE 11.20 Canalside growing of flowers. ( Continued )

e CologiCal and r eCreational P arks
A 215 ha ecology park was built in 1993 at a cost of $400 million (Figure 11.22); at
one time, it employed a hundred landscapers to manage the 1 million trees, and more
than three hundred endemic species were installed. Today, the park struggles to be
financially self-reliant through admission fees, guided tours, a small shop, and an
accredited water chemistry laboratory.
As well as being an ecological reserve for research, the park has become a major
tourist attraction with half a million visitors per year and, interestingly, is managed
not by an ecologist but by an anthropologist. The attractive visitor center complex,
including a rooftop observation platform, a terrace, and a plaza with an artistic water
tower, has won numerous design awards (Trulove 2002; Schjetnan 1996; Meier 1996;